Mashada Blogs » May 8, 2009

Kikuyumoja's realm: How many parts are inside?

jke — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:22:40 -0400

Ever wondered what an opened 2.5″ hard disk drive looks like?

Now you know.

This is what happens when you trust that buying a used 60GB 2.5″ HDD will “be enough” to secure your important data.

It failed to work after a year, gave me some headache the other day (managed to recover 99,5% of my data) and has now received its final treatment.

For Love and Money: Revisiting The Dark Days

Fri, 08 May 2009 11:58:00 -0400

Revisiting The Dark Days

Words Much Like Poetry: Lack Hope

Fri, 08 May 2009 11:42:00 -0400

she mocks me as she calls to me
taunting me, haunting me
her far cry irresistible
her whispers the smoke of shadows

she veils my tomorrow in dread,
tearing my soul to pieces
shredding my reason to ribbons of agony,
capturing me in a cage of despair

the ink in my word is gone
the hue in my world is gone
the shades in my world are gone
the color in my world is gone

I stumble to uncertainty,
every step the pain of a thousand cries
the tears are stuck in my throat,
my heart is denied its voice

there are snares in my path
she dogs me in the shadows,
laughing maniacally
her minions of lack hope striking at me from the darkness

I fear I shall fall
and rot in this tunnel
I fear i shall never wake,
as she owns me forever

the agony within lacks voice,
as I call for death to take me
but I know with certainty,
he will not hear me

a light that I long for is calling to me
and it seems never nearing as I go to it
it is my only salvation as she watches me succumb
and even it starts to flicker in indefinite uncertainty

bankelele: AGM Split

Fri, 08 May 2009 09:36:00 -0400

Family Bank and KCB 2009 AGM

Family Bank is 25 years old this year and is about the 21st largest bank in Kenya. It is in some circles known as Equity Blue because of some similarities with retail giant Equity Bank (it operated as family finance building society till May 2007)

They held their AGM today in Nairobi; it was a straight forward meeting, very informal. Chairman is Mr. Titus Muya who’s the founder and was also the CEO till about two easy ago when he relinquished that post reluctantly.

Q&A
Joseph Kaguthi, former PC, Anti-drug tsar is a shareholder in the company and also asked some good questions (he’ll be referred to as JK)

Q. When will the bank list it shares? Many shareholders bought share in the bank in anticipation of it listing soon (JK noted they said they’d so it within three years and they’d be a market for their shares and asked the board to clarify the over the counter (OTC) market as more people want to buy shares in the bank
A. Management replied that they were ready to list last year/early this year, but that the timing was not right I.e. Nairobi stock exchange was in a down mode, see Co-Op Bank shares after IPO

On Presentation of the annual report
- JK noted they have improved presentation of the report by including report, missions, vision, values, but he asked them to now include a list of top 10 shareholders as this was a governance issue
Q. another asked why if retained earnings were high, the bank was giving low dividend?
A. Need retained earnings to grow. Also company can’t pay share capital or premium back to shareholders

Q. loans as security - One shareholder who’s a carpenter narrated a tale of how he fell sick for many months and ran out of funds; he wanted to take a loan using his share as collateral
A. company act doe not allow one to sue company’s shares to borrow from same company

Q. why are non performing loans high
A CEO O said their bad loans are 6% of loan book compared to banking sector average of 11%. Also they are mining those and collected 100 million from non performing loans last year

Investor outlook
- Only customers can buy shares in the bank
- May have raise capital in a few years owing to fast growth
- Company registered opened on may 1, and divided (Kshs 1.50) will be paid on may 30 2009

KCB AGM: KICC is a very popular site for annual general meetings since Philip Kisia (now appointed the new town clerk in Nairobi) rehabilitated what was a very run-down Nairobi landmark. But with almost 170,000 shareholders it may have been the wrong place to hold their annual meeting. The lines snaked all over the courtyard and registration took a couple of hours for some people I hear

Comrade Sylkwan (thank you) was at the meet and gave a brief re-cap of the Q&A sessions

Q: Why there was no proxy for on the financial statements which were issued at the AGM
A: Shareholders had already been sent to the F/S and the previous years the proxy form was used by s/holders to collect multiple gifts

Q: Why foreign institutional investors own a lot of shares in KCB and what benefits it brought to the Bank
A. KCB shares are listed at the NSE and everyone is free to buy them

Q. Age of directors was not indicated on the F/S. Since there were directors seeking re-election, wanted to know if any was above 70years
A: None of their directors was above that age and if so they would have issued a special resolution

Q: why KCB shareholders could not withdraw cash at the Uganda branch
A: the CE said that it was possible to withdraw money unless there was a technical hitch on that day

Q: Triton issue?
A. Ignored this question (continuing a no comment on Triton or any KCB customer policy)

stalled building construction on Waiyaki Way, rumored to be a Triton property

Q: why the bank does not provide fare to the Shareholders who travel from far
A: It was not possible to pay shareholders fare and share dividends

Q: why the CSR budget was so high even when KCB was only issuing a Kshs. 1.00 per share
A: KCB was spending 2.2b in dividends and Kshs. 54m was a drop in the ocean. KCB also needed to establish a good relationship with the community where the business is established.

You Missed This: Zuma Consults Kibaki on First Lady

Taabu — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:00:00 -0400

Kenyans are so fast at pointing fingers even at SAINTS. Now all and sundry are baying for Jomo Junior’s blood for a mistake the PRINCE didn’t make. What is more, Uhuru has equivocally clarified that the SMALL discrepancy of KES 9.2 BILLION was a computer error. What other further proof do Kenyans want from an INDUSTRIOUS and hard working politician.

For the records Uhuru is not naive to burn his fingers by engaging in silly/petty thefts. Son of Ngina was born and destined for bigger things and marauding Kenyans must give him a break. He tops the 2012 presidential wish list and that makes him a magnet of barbs in all shapes and form.

Finance Ministry is not meant for minions and unlike other dockets must be tightly guarded. UK has apologized and we must take him for his word. If anything a billion is just but some nine zeroes and such grandiose errors in 200 columns is human. We must trust Muigai with the hard task of formulating national budget next month.

But PRINCE UK is smart enough to know when to face camera and without blinking declare IT WASN’T ME. Well, Shaggy the singer had no clue when he belted that number. The DPM smells political heat miles away and with Marende breathing fire through parliamentary committee attack dogs UK knows nobody ever constipated from and overdose of humble pie.

Executive ministry
But the whole saga leaves national bitter taste. Are all the MPs so busy they blindly pass such a colossal amount of tax payers money without scrutiny? The joke is on us people as Kenya’s gatekeepers re-enforce the grills with every trick available to them.

If only computers could talk then we would know for sure how easily we are fooled as a nation. The truth is you don’t inaugurate yourself at midnight and sleep pretty without going overdrive to accomplish the Grand Mission of auctioning even the unborn Kenyan. We haven’t seen anything yet.Kumekucha

bankelele: Honest Scrap Awards

Fri, 08 May 2009 04:47:00 -0400

I was tagged by Riviera Owner Kahenya whose site you can now comment on:

Rules
- You must brag about the award
- You must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you and link back to the blogger
- You must choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
- Show their names and links and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog.
- List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on with the instructions!

10 things
1. Contrary to Kahenya's suggestion, I don’t take the Google kool-aid; I don’t sing their praise or earn an adsense cent. Having said that they control too may aspects of my life (blog, e-mail, news-reader, and search), and whatever their motives, they are good hosts, caterers, and sponsors for skunkworks events in Nairobi
2. My tech skills are nonexistent – just basic HTML. I’m not a techie, most of my posts are written in Microsoft Word
3. I’m really not feeling my job these days
4. I picture myself as Mr. Patel,a shopkeeper, behind the shop desk running the cash register (and laptop) from a small duka on Kirinyaga Road. I need a kick start into entrepreneurship
5. I am jealous of the Ushaidi crew; nevertheless I am committed that I will be a good director of that organization. You will invite me right?
6. Like Kahenya I love flying and once thought that (from the right angle) Martha Karua was hot
7. I’m not good at forming friendships and have a rather small group of close friends
8. My family, my core
9. Several friends and relatives are reading this; but I don’t like talking about blogging in public
10. I try and answer every tag with a commitment that I will not take part in another and will not pass it on to other bloggers

Farmgal: X-rays

farmgal — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:10:52 -0400

One lovelorn man who tried to steal a £1,750 engagement ring by swallowing it was caught after police ran a metal detector over his stomach, x-rayed him, and eventually proved their case by mounting a three-day vigil outside his cell while nature took its course and the ring ‘emerged’. Hungover Chris Foster, 18, had no memory [...]